Mostly about me, too boring?

Well, an other month.

Man! Time flies!

Originally (that is, three weeks ago), I wanted to blog on the weekend I spent in Italy to pick up my motorbike. I guess I will do that, but I want to write something more later this week (lazy bastard!).

So, let's start from the beginning.

As soon as I moved to The Netherlands, I had the wish to reunite with my beloved motorbike, so exactly the second weekend (!!) after I came here I flew to Italy, one way... ;-)

The organization started well in advanced. I had to unblock the insurance (otherwise I couldn't drive!), find a flight and find the best way to come from Italy to The Netherlands.

Unblocking (reactivating?) the insurance was the hardest part: I had to keep my finger crossed hoping that the new papers from the insurance would be able to travel 500km in three days. If you never sent mail in Italy, you can't understand this point. ;-)

About the way to travel back with the motorbike, at first I planned to drive all the way, sleeping in Germany Saturday night. It was just 1.000km, and on the German highway (the autobahn) there is no speed limit... But then a friend gave me a great idea: bring my motorbike with the train! Of course, no electronic ticket for that, so I had to buy it over the phone and a friend in Milan picked up the ticket for me.

And finally, the cherry on the icing: the motorbike, to run in Italy, needed a compulsory check to a mechanic (so called "revisione") since four years are elapsed since I bought it. I found a mechanic's number through a friend and (incredible!) Saturday morning was his last workday before holidays!

To be totally ready, I borrowed a GPS addon for my mobile phone, so that I would be able to see the road with it.

So, as you can see, it was planned as a typical, relaxing weekend.

I landed in Milan Malpensa airport around 10pm and the first good news came to welcoming back in my home country: the first bus for Lugano was leaving in about an hour. I decided to do something nice for my sisters (who hates to drive, especially to pick me up) and I took a taxi to the train station. During the short ride, I had to listen to the driver's complains because in the whole day he just had two customers, both going to the closest train station. I didn't feel really sympathetic towards him, thinking about the 100 EUR he would charge for the 50km from the airport to Milan.
Nevertheless, I reached the train station (about 25 EUR). The train brings me much closer to my parents' house. I told the change in plan to my sister and I started my journey.
About one hour later I was at the station. My sister was already waiting for me (maybe the first time in ten years?) and I reached my parents' house around midnight.

Few minutes after stepping into the house, we started arguing, but I am not gonna talk about that... ;-)

After dinner I started preparing for the next day. I prepared a small baggage, made sure the motorbike was all right and I checked the papers from the insurance (they actually came on Thursday!!!).

The next day, Saturday, I woke up at 6am, since the appoinment at the mechanic was for 9am. Since the motorbike was not used for more than one year, I disconnected its battery, which went totally flat in the meanwhile.

Using the appropriate cables, I connected the motorbike's battery to the car's, in order to turn it on. As you know, the battery charges while you are driving. But you need to drive for a while before the battery has enough power to turn on the engine again. So, if my engine would stop, I would be in trouble.

I started driving toward the mechanic, but once I was in the right town, I didn't know how to find it. I stopped to ask to someone and to avoid the noise, I turned off the engine. You guessed, the battery was still too low to turn on my engine again. I felt so stupid! But I had been lucky, I was on a slope: I just let the motorbike go freely downhill, I put the gear on and I turned the engine on.

Once I reached the mechanic and I started talking with him, he told me he didn't plan any work for that day. He was only supposed to clean before holiday period, but he did an exception to help me since at the phone I explained my situation to him. That (i.e. "an exception") is what I miss about Italy. Here (pretty much like in Finland), a rule is a rule, and the concept of bending a rule doesn't have space in people's mind. Somehow I have the feeling that here in The Netherlands they just enjoy red tape (burocracy).

Less than an hour later, I was on the road again, heading to Milan to pickup my train ticket.

I reached my friend's place, picked up the ticket and headed to Verona, where the train would leave. I was even there before the scheduled time to load the train! ;-)

Now a little cultural corner about Italy: the nice and friendly personnel from the train company (Trenitalia) that was supposed to check-in the drivers was speaking ONLY ITALIAN. The train was heading to Düsseldorf, it was full of Germans and Dutch, but the guy didn't speak a word of English, German or Dutch. I cannot guess for how long he did that work, but still the car's plate was "the ID", with the result that people always showed their passport when he was asking for "auto ID"... No comment.
Luckily a lady from the German train company (Die Bahn) was speaking German, English and Italian. By the way, the website for this service is dbautozug.

This is what my motorbike looked like after they loaded it. They also locked it so that it wouldn't move, but the picture was take after they took the locks away:

For the first hour or so I was alone, and then in Bolzano a family (father and son) from Germany joined my coach. They were actually a very funny couple. The father was probably on his late forties, and the son was 10 or so. They had a week of holidays together with a motorbike. We had a nice chat during the evening.

The next morning, around 7am, I was ready to drive from Düsseldorf to Den Haag, except I didn't have a clue which way to drive! This is when I turned on the GPS, but how to see the mobile's screen while driving? Have a look:


This looks crazy, I know. But believe me, it worked! I linked the mobile to the engine's key.

Without the GPS I would have been so lost! Sunday morning (7am) in August in Düsseldorf. There was nobody to whom ask for any indication.

Believe it or not on the highway the phone didn't move up to 200km/h in the autobahn.

Yes, this is the other thing I wanted to tell you. I reached twice, only for few seconds, 200km/h. It wasn't particularly fun. It's probably the kind of stupid thing men do. I did.

There were two way to tell when I crossed the border from Germany to The Netherlands. One was a sign on the side of the road, the other was that everyone slowed down to 120km/h. :-(

At that was it. I finally have my motorbike here with me! The fact that everything went exactly as planned made very happy.

But I cannot hide the truth to you. After four years, I had the first small accident with this motorbike. Few days ago I went to the cinema and while I was watching the movie it started raining. The area where I live is a damn maze of tram rails, and even if I know all the theory about it, I slipped on one tram rail. My bruises are almost gone, but my little bike will carry the scar for much longer. I guess shit happens. :-(

Stay tuned! More soon on the incredible amount of red tape in The Netherlands.


alfonso

Almost two months! This is for sure the longest time without any update in my blog. So what happened during these two months?

Well, I think it's quite a long list of events I'd like to talk about!

In June I spent a week of holidays in Italy, and I went for the weekend near Naples, where my grandmother lives. I really would like to create a special post for that weekend, so more about it later.

Then in July I was contacted for a job offer (and this is the main reason that kept me off the blog) and here you go.

NOW I LIVE IN THE NETHERLANDS!

I left my previous employer and I started a new job in the same technology area I used to work. But this time I will not have to travel, which I think it's good, so I will be able to have a more stable lifestyle and I will visit my girlfriend more often (she lives in Paris). You're free to quote this sentence when I will start complaining about lack of traveling in my new job! ;)

Of course, a change of country brings a lot of other changes too! I had to plan a move (and it wasn't easy, believe me), try to sell my furniture (which I managed to do!) and find a new flat in The Netherlands.

But now I'm here, and I like it! A live in an area of The Hague called Scheveningen. It's a very nice looking street, with only two floors building and it's very quiet and peaceful. It's only 10-15 minutes far from the sea as you can see from this map.

Yesterday I went walking on the beach with a colleague and I took some picture. Here you can see how many windsurfs and kitesurfs there were in the sea. It was really windy, but really great.



I really enjoyed walking and talking on the beach. It was very nice. In the evening we had a nice Argentinian dinner and we went home pretty early. For the whole week we slept about 6 hours a day because we were commuting to a different city. 4 extra hours every day.

I spent today doing laundry and answering emails and planning my trip from Italy to here with my motorbike. I bought a one-way ticket to Italy and I plan to drive back with my motorbike. So finally, after 17 months, I will start using my motorbike again! Great!

Enjoy!

alfonso

Hi all.

These days, on the BBC, I can see the new advertisement for Italia (did you know Italy spent 45 millions Euro to relaunch Italy's image of which 10 millions were used for the new web portal http://www.italia.it?).

I have to say, I really like it. I couldn't find the video online.

A voice reads some Italian poems and sentences from novels.

I really like one poem by Vincenzo Cardarelli that I've never heard before:

Non so dove i gabbiani abbiano il nido, ove trovino pace.
Io son come loro, in perpetuo volo.

I don't know where seagulls have their nest, where they rest.
I'm like them, perpetually flying.

So I changed the old description of the blog which was:

Sono un emigrante, ma del XXI secolo. Così invece delle cartoline e della valigia di cartone, ecco il mio blog... Spero mi aiuterà a rimanere in contatto con gli amici!

Also, regarding poems, there was one poem I wanted to share with you. This is by Cecco Angiolieri a poet who lived in Siena in the XIII and XIV centuries:

S' i' fosse foco, arderei 'l mondo;
s' i' fosse vento, lo tempesterei;
s' i' fosse acqua, i' l'annegherei,
s' i' fosse Dio, mandereil' en profondo;
s' i' fosse papa, sare' allor giocondo,
ché tutt' i cristiani imbrigherei;
s' i' fosse 'mperator, sa' che farei?
a tutti mozzerei lo capo a tondo.
S' i' fosse morte, andarei da mio padre;
s' i' fosse vita, fuggirei da lui:
similmente farìa da mi' madre.
S' i' fosse Cecco, com' i' sono e fui,
torrei le donne giovani e leggiadre,
e vecchie e laide lasserei altrui.

Translation:

If I was fire I would burn up the world;
If I was wind, I would blow it apart;
If I was water, I would drown it,
If I was God I would throw it into the pit,
If I was the pope I would be doing fine
And cut off all the Christians’ nuts;
If I was Empereor, what would I do?
I would cut off everyone’s heads with one blow.
If I was death, I would embrace my father;
If I was life, I would run away from him:
Likewise with my mother.
If I was Cecco, as I am and always have been,
I would take all the young and good-looking women
And leave the ugly ones for everyone else.

Au revoir,

alfonso

Hi all.

THIS IS FUNNY or at least it is for me... :-)

Yesterday I went to have dinner at a friend's place here in Paris. She did food shopping and then we went home and chat while she was cooking. At some point she started freaking out saying something like: "Oh my God, how could I forget that?". I didn't know what she was talking about but after she calmed down I realized she forgot buying cabbage. Since it was already 8:30pm and we were not in the centre of the city, she was sure we couldn't get a cabbage, but I told her I was sure we could find one.

So we went out and tried all the groceries shops around her place but they where all closed. So I tried to ask in a restaurant (mind you: I don't speak a word of French and English is not so common here, but I managed to find always nice people willing to try to comunicate with me) and they told us about an other groceries shop nearby. That was open, but he didn't have any cabbage. I said: "You see: this is already good news, now you know an other shop near your place which is open long hours!".

But then the real fun started: I started to go into each and every restaurant trying to buy a "chou" (the name in French). In general people were reacting in a nice way. In the first restaurant they tried to ask in the kitchen but there was no cabbage. I learnt that cabbage is not a common food ingredient in French cuisine. :-)

But then I saw a Japanese restaurant and since my friend was cooking Japanese food, I thought that I found my solution! I went in but unfortunately the people inside the restaurant didn't speak neither English nor Japanese (my friend is Japanese). So I started to ask about "chou" and they said they had it. Great! When I was about to pay, I read on the check "chou salade", so cabbage salad. I started to explain them I needed the full cabbage, but it was not so easy without a common language between us! Finally the younger waitress said: "home cooking?" and the magic was done. Few mintues later I walked away with a plastic bag and a cabbage, and a big smile.

Ciao,

alfonso

More than two weeks silence... I'm really a lazy guy!

This post is about last week. Actually I will change the date to last week so that there will be no record of my laziness... ;-)

I spent the last two days of May in Oulu, which is a town (130.000 people) around 500km north of Helsinki. Something that you learn flying north from Helsinki is that it's very hard to say who lives north. This should be a lesson for the "North League", an Italian political party whose main political idea is to distinguish Italy in who lives North and who lives South...

As you might easily imagine, the city is very quite.

Unfortunately there is not much that I can tell you about it, since I was there only one night and I didn't really go around. I had dinner in a Turkish restaurant called Istanbul and it was very good!

The only story I have is from my previous trip to Oulu. Since the weather was cold (500km north of Helsinki, just to remind you) I decided to go to the cinema. During the movie I moved my jacket and my mobile phone that was in a pocket fell on the floor. When the movie ended I found the mobile phone and walked away. During dinner I realized that I lost also my GPS receiver in the cinema. When I went back an other movie was already started in the room, so I couldn't go and check. I told what happened to the people working in the cinema and I left my number.

No I know it's not easy to believe it if, for example, you live in Italy. But at the end of the second show I got a phone call and they even brought the GPS back to my hotel. Welcome to Finland.

Ciao,

alfonso

Last weeks Beppe Severgnini, an Italian journalist and book writer was in Finland, so (following his usual custom) a pizza was organized in the country for all the Italians that follow his forum on the internet called Italians.

It was actually a very funny evening. On his forum, he mainly gives voice to Italians who live abroad. Some people are complaining about the country they are visiting, some people are very happy to have moved abroad. Some (like me) complain that Italians don't really have a choice anymore if they want to have a decent salary and a challenging job without any "hidden sponsor" that puts them in a nice and cosy position...

This is the picture from that evening of the people seated at my same table.

Alfonso

I've been lazy these last weeks, but now it's time to update the blog.

Two weeks ago, Tuesday 1st of May, in Finland there has been a great party that every year involves all the population: Vappu.

This is already the second year I write about it. You can read about last year Vappu.

Year after year, I still love this holiday and I would do everything possible to have the traditional pic-nic in Kaivopuisto, a nice park by the sea. This year I was especially happy since the weather was bad before and after Vappu, but on 1st of May the sky was blue and the temperature was not so cold. :-)

I will try to show you some different picture than last year. In this first picture you can see the huge crowd in Senaatintori (whit the big white tuomiokirkko in the background):

This is a picture taken during the pic-nic: as you can see drinking and partying take a toll... :-)

Happy Vappu! Hyvää Vappua!

alfonso

Hi all!

I'm back in Helsinki, Finland... :-O

I was looking at my pictures, and I realized that I shoot very rarely faces, but I also think that when I do so, I get great shots. The first is from San Miguel De Allende in Mexico, the second is from Krabi in Thailand.

Enjoy!

Last week it was Thai New Year.

It lasts from 13th to 15th of April. The party highlight (for "farang" - foreigners in Thai language) is a stroll in Khao Sarn Road in Bangkok where everyone is armed with a plastic water gun and powder to cream everyone's face.

I feel really lucky since I spent Songkran with Thai friends. On Thursday evening we went together to a big club called "Holliwood" where most of the people were Thai. The place is really different from any club I've ever been before. There is a huge catwalk in the middle on the floor and there is live music and a huge amount of girls singing and dancing on the catwalk. The one thing I was most impressed by is how all Thai people were paying respect to unwritten rules. Up till midnight, hardly nobody shot water with their gun and then, after midnight, the wild party started. While the people started shooting at each other, on the catwalk the girls were less and less dressed (please note: most of the audiance in the club were Thai girls). At the end a group of them had just a star on their nipples... I'm not sure about this last batch of girls, but all the other after the show on the catwalk were just joining the crowd and mingle with them.

Anyway, something I really liked was that nobody throw anything (other than water) and for the whole night (despite the heavy usage of alchool) the guns were always loaded just with plain clean water.

I feel great respect for a population that can enjoy a wild party without loosing respect for some basic rules. After unexpectedly shooting a complete stranger, the usual custom was to bow with join hands to salute and thank the shooter... :-)

The first pictures are from Flickr (just search for Songkran or Kao San). The following shows one of the many great performances in the Holliwood. :-)